The story behind it:

Ontario bars face transitional period when smoking ban takes effect Wednesday
May. 29, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Bars in Ontario that let smokers light up after a provincewide ban takes effect Wednesday will get off with a warning for a first offence, the minister spearheading the new legislation said Monday.
"With any law, there tends to be a transition period," Ontario Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson said of the new ban on smoking in all restaurants, bars, casinos, bingo halls and virtually every other indoor public space.
"We think a reasonable approach is the phased-in approach, with the education, warnings and then fines."
Most municipalities across the province already have local anti-smoking bylaws in place - cities like Windsor and Brockville are two of the bigger exceptions - but many allow for designated smoking rooms and smoking on patios. The new provincial law outlaws designated smoking rooms, as well as puffers on patios that have a roof, even if it just partially covers patrons.
The law takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
A similar law takes effect in Quebec at the same time, although some 75 new undercover inspectors with the province's Health Department likely won't begin patrolling the province's bars and restaurants until later in the day.
Lise Talbot, a Health Department spokeswoman, said she hopes the inspectors will be able to visits two-thirds of the province's 8,000 bars and taverns by the end of the summer.
Ontario, meanwhile, isn't planning a major crackdown Wednesday, Watson said. "My hope is that the vast majority of people will be in compliance."
Watson, a former mayor of Ottawa, which five years ago implemented a strict municipal smoking ban, acknowledged there will likely be those proprietors who either aren't clear about how the law impacts their particular establishment or who openly defy it.
Those who consistently break the law will pay the price, he said.
"In Ottawa, there were people trying to push the limit. That didn't last very long. After a while, the public were overwhelmingly in support."
Ontario chief medical officer Sheela Basrur said fines for repeat offenders will vary, particularly depending on whether it's an individual or business who is responsible.
A precise list of potential fines will be published by provincial officials later this week, though generally, fines for businesses violating the law will be up to $10,000 and individuals face fines of up to $600.
After a warning, "we will not be going back and back and back and back, educating, re-education, re-warning, et cetera," Basrur said.
"The transition period of adjustment will be needed, but it will be time-limited."
She said inspectors would return to any site within a few days of a warning having been issued.
"If the offence is reoccurring, then enforcement measures will be taken," she said.
Michael Perley of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco said inspectors shouldn't wait too long to enforce the laws because otherwise, some proprietors might feel penalized for complying while their competitors continue to allow smoking.
"The problem becomes . . . the people who are complying look and say, 'Wait a minute, these guys next door are getting away with it,' " Perley said.
"If that lasts more than a week or two, maybe three, I think you'll then start hearing grumblings from proprietors who are complying."
New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have already banned smoking in public places. Nova Scotia's ban takes effect at the end of the year.